Merry Christmas from Seoul! As you read this in the States we are probably already finished with Christmas dinner and the kids are joyfully playing with their new toys. I’m probably drinking some wine and enjoying the company of S,R,E and J, not to mention G, B1, B2 and B3, and Max (our dog).

So, wifey is doing great. Ha! Did you think this was your regular blogger today??? No, this is husband, AKA hubby, or H for short. I figured it was time for me to contribute to SixinSeoul after enjoying it for 9 months without ever adding to it. So, hopefully I will live up to the high standards of wifey. I’m also hoping to break her record forcomments on one blog, so there may be some blatant flattery or even extortion attempts to get some comments.Anyways, I thought I would blog about Christmas traditions; and maybe start by recalling some of my favorites. This is difficult for me though, as I can hardly remember anything from when I was a kid. I have chronic CRS. That’s not a technical description of my problem, but is very accurate nevertheless. Mostly I remember a certain white ceramic Christmas tree with huge neon lights that scorched my retinas and is probably the reason I needed lasik surgery to correct my sight. But, when I wasn’t shielding my face from the lights, I remember spending time around the Christmas tree as a kid. We always had a real Christmas tree, decorated with an assortment of homemade or family ornaments. Our trees were always put up by the whole family and were unique and beautiful. And, they usually smelled like dog urine and perfume. This is because our dog Strider would usually christen the tree very early in the holiday season, and M (who is referred to as Grammy in the August Blogs, but is M for my Mom in this blog) would attempt to mask the smell with perfume. To this day, I can’t smell Eau de Canine without thinking of our Christmas trees.

Living in Colorado, we usually enjoyed white Christmases as a kid. It was almost always cold, and bleak. Denver is an especially ugly place in winter. Yes, the mountains are pretty in the distance, but the buildings inside the city are dirty, the trees are bare, and the streets are grimy and sandy. The only thing worth looking at during winter in Denver are the Broncos. Yeah!! Hopefully the Broncos will win this week in San Diego and there will be a home playoff game in January. (yes, I suppose the average female reader is probably grumbling about this digression into football after just a few short comments on Christmas, but hey, this is what you get when a man blogs. Just go with it.) Besides, the Broncos are a Christmas tradition that I can actually remember. I always knew Christmas was near when the Broncos clinched a playoff spot. So, support the Broncos if you like Christmas. And, for all you Cowboy fans out there, Bah Humbug!

My sister M (this blog privacy thing can be a real confusing thing) is a real stickler for tradition. I bet if we ate oysters for Christmas as a kid, she’d be serving them this year in Boise, even though she won’t eat them. Thankfully though, M (that one is Mom) never served shellfish. Instead, we usually had a traditional dinner. I think this was mainly because of GM and GP (Grandma and Grandpa). They were always with us on Christmas, which I absolutely loved. GM would always slip us a little extra Holiday cash, and then maybe grab our hiney, too (I have to say hiney because wifey doesn’t let the kids use the B word). But, speaking of shellfish, we just enjoyed a Christmas ‘snack’ of oysters and sushi. This is because we made a trip to the Seoul fish market today, in pursuit of mussels, but came home with mussels, oysters, sushi, smoked salmon and tuna. Lots of good meals in the future!Okay, Boy 1 and I also just finished making a pie while Girl made deviled eggs with wifey. In the spirit of wifey’s blogging exploits, here is the recipe, but dumbed down for men to follow:

Oreo Pie

41 or so Oreos (this is just one package of them)1/4c butter (c is for cup)24-28 large marshmallows (or whatever is in the bag after the kids sneak a few)1/2c milk3/2c heavy whipping cream

Melt the butter in the microwave for about 1 minute and let cool. Melt the mallows and milk in a pan and let cool (don’t do this on high!). Chunk up about 10 cookies.Really chunk up all but five of the rest (maybe use a food processor for this, its for the crust). Combine this with the butter and smush into a pie pan. Whip the cream. Then fold in the marshmallow stuff. If you don’t know what fold is, its okay, just mix it all up. Oh, mix in the chunked up cookies too. Then put it all into the pie crust, slap the remaining cookies on top and put it into the fridge. And, viola, Oreo pie. Bon Appétit!

So, back to Christmas traditions. A lot of the traditions I enjoyed as a kid in Denver, we do here in Korea. For instance, we always put up a plastic mistletoe. We mainly just ignore it, but occasionally someone is forced to smooch Mom or Dad because we ambush the poor child under it. Another tradition we also follow here is to open Christmas presents one at a time. This really prolongs the Christmas morning euphoria. Today it took over two and a half hours (!), but there were 10 of us opening gifts. After the gifts, we then diginto the stockings. These are handled individually. The highlight of this morning’s stocking ransacking was the pair of men’s underwear that I bought for wifey. Oops! They looked nice though. In my defense, they were purchased in a Korean store. I’m hoping she will at least try them on.We have a lot of new traditions, too. For instance, instead of a traditional dinner, we all get to pick one thing for dinner. This year I chose mussels. Boy 2 wanted candy canes, Boy 3 asked for chocolate cookies, Boy 1 chose baked potatos, and Girl took pigs-in-a-blanket. Also, R, S, E and J wanted Beef Wellington, asparagus, pumpkin bread and sautéed mushrooms (this makes two of the special ‘é’s in this blog if anyone is keeping track). Wifey added a tomato mozzarella salad. She also added lemon crème brulee, at my request (isn’t she sweet?). So, quite the feast, and I can say with certainty that this is completely unique to the TemporarilyTeninSeoul Christmas Extravaganza. Oh, I also asked for celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and green olives, which wifey calls celery stick thingies. Here is the recipe:

Celery Stick Thingies

Some Cream cheeseSome Green OlivesSome Celery

Cut the celery into smaller sticks. Chop up the olives and mix into the cream cheese. Put the olive cream cheese mix into the celery sticks. And, viola, Celery Stick Thingies. Bon Appétit! (Also, thanks to R for the correct spelling of viola, which is actually pronounced walla(!) for you people who don’t speak French)

OK, I think this will qualify as the longest blog of the year. I’m going to end with the recipe for my all-time favorite Christmas food, the pizelle. This cookie has an absolute ton of memories for me. I remember GP (Grandpa) making these cookies when I was a kid. Some of these would taste a bit smoky too, if they remained too long at GM/GP’s house. I remember M making these for us as I was growing up, too. Later I remember making these with wifey, and now I make them with my sons and daughter. In fact, Girl was experimenting this year by adding cinnamon. I also remember eating these cookies in Iraq (thanks for all of the packages everyone), missing home and M and wifey and kids and bro and sis and friends and everything else, but these cookies brought me back home. All I have to do is eat one, and Christmas is there. I really hope everyone reading this blog is as blessed as I am to have such a great family and friends as I have (thanks for coming to Korea R and S), but if not, as least you can have pizelles:

(GM did not have any further instructions. I usually mix the sugar, flour and salt together. I also melt the butter and mix it in with the eggs and flavoring. Then I mix it all together and bake the cookies on my pizelle iron.)

I provided the guidance for the spelling of voila, but I didn't actually spell it for J (AKA hubby). He took the initiative on using the word viola instead. On the subject of string instruments, I used to play the viola when I was 6 years old, but was later kicked out of the University of Texas String Project because I wasn't practicing enough.

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Robert - Post 2 --- More thoughts

12/24/2008 04:29:22 pm

The time in Seoul has been amazing. I highly recommend it. The city, people, food, transportation and the SixInSeoul group have been great. Thank you for having us and we look forward to many more Christmases together.

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Robert ... I almost forgot

12/24/2008 04:31:05 pm

Oh!! I almost forgot to wish everyone a merry Christmas. Have you ever noticed how everyone always capitalizes the "m" in merry, even if it is in the middle of the sentence. The day is Christmas, not Merry Christmas. J and T disagree with me on this. What say you?

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Staci aka "S" below...

12/24/2008 04:54:22 pm

I think R is just trying to get as many posts for "J" as possible. Not fair! But, I do have to agree, the SixinSeoul team has been awesome. What an incredible experience. And, now that we are done opening presents, I can get on with some serious shopping!! Love to the SixinSeoul team and I, too, look forward to many more Christmases together... after all, you started it by saying anything after 2 years is a new tradition.... Cheers!

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Lara

12/25/2008 12:13:49 am

It's actually "voila". Joyeux Noel!

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Rob

12/25/2008 09:37:42 am

Lara - Thanks. I did know how to spell it correctly. BD (big daddy, aka j, aka hubby for Trish) gave me the bum rush on the credit... (As explained in my first comments above).

How was your, S and boy and girl's Christmas.

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Tara

12/25/2008 11:15:25 am

Merry Christmas!!! Really enjoyed this post, J. We had a wonderful Christmas too here in TX. We are going to KY in the morning to see Tim's family. Should be tons of fun. :o)

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Mel

12/25/2008 11:01:22 pm

J- glad to read about some of your memories on Christmas. I share many of the same memories. I still have the original plastic mistletoe, it is not in good shape but it still goes up and the kids get smooched under it every year. One of our family traditions is to read the Night Before Christmas shortly before the kids go to bed. We have a copy that mom made for E in 1996 that is made of cloth. BTW: Thank you so much for the blankets and the mug. The girls love how soft the blankets are and A is already trying to convince me that he should be able to drink coffee in the mug. I keep telling him that coffee will stunt his growth! Think how big he could be if he would stop sneaking coffee! Love you guys!

JT...I can't believe that you spilled the beans about the "scented tree"! By the way it wasn't "Eau de Canine" it was a very expensive "Eau de Estee Lauder", because GM gave me a bottle every Christmas, because I once told her that I liked it. Once you told GM you liked something, weather it be food, perfume or whatever, she made sure you got it every year! Funny how we all share the same memories, that's what make a family. But especially grandma and grandpa's cookies. It makes me happy that all three of my children now make them for their familes every year at Christmas. You're quite the exaggerater, "HUGE NEON LIGHTS" oh please!! You can't have lived in the 70's without a ceramic Christmas tree. You'll be very sad to know that "your" tree got broken, I'm going to have to try and find one at a garage sale this next year and send it to you. The absolute best Christmas ever is knowing that all my children are happy, healthy and SAFE! I love you!!

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MOM aka Gram

12/27/2008 04:40:31 am

hey...don't forget the Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning, which by the way, Trish where is your recipe? The cream cheese frosting sounded wonderful.

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Christie

1/5/2009 02:50:53 am

Sorry to T, but I have to respond! R-you are cheating by commenting so many times LOL (but I guess you have to when you are competing with Super T!Anyway, great entry J. Lots of fun to read and you did a good job writing the recipes. Miss you guys and hope to visit sometime before you leave! Happy New Year to the whole family from ours!

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Proud Army wife and mother to 4 wonderful children.I love to cook, travel, work out and scrapbook life’s adventures when I find the time. We just got orders & are heading back to the states in March 2010. I'm bummed that our time has been cut short, but proud of Hubby for the reason why.